Recently, home VTRs use a front operational type cassette loading apparatus which loads (inserts) a cassette into a VTR at a predetermined position (where a tape is pulled out from the cassette) from the front side for tape recording/reproducing, and unloads (ejects) the cassette to the front side of the VTR after its use is finished.
Conventionally, this type of front loading apparatus (hereinafter referred to as FL) generally has a power mechanism coupled to a cassette holder for receiving a horizontally loaded cassette. In this case a drive gear is disposed on one side of the cassette holder and a driven gear on the other side. That is, the driven gear interlocks with the drive gear via a transmission mechanism.
Due to the backlash inevitable to a mechanism using gears, however, the above conventional FL causes a phase shift in view of the operational time between the drive gear and driven gear located at both ends of the cassette holder, at the times of cassette loading and unloading. This deviates the parallelism between the right and left edges of the cassette during operation, so that smooth loading and unloading cannot be provided.